Infosys' shares end nearly 5 percent down as founders sell shares

Mumbai: Shares of IT services major Infosys fell nearly 5 percent on Monday, wiping out Rs 11,611 crore from its market valuation, after its co-founders N R Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani along with their family members, sold shares worth Rs 6,484 crore.

The company's scrip plunged 4.88 percent to end the day at Rs 1,968.60 on the BSE. During the day, it lost 5.37 percent to Rs 1,958.50. At the NSE, shares of Infosys slipped 4.75 percent to settle at Rs 1,972.

Led by decline in the stock, the company's market value dipped by Rs 11,611.06 crore to Rs 2,26,088.26 crore. The stock was the biggest loser among the blue-chips on both Sensex and Nifty.

"IT major Infosys slipped more than 5 percent as markets observed almost 3.3 crore shares in small blocks sold on the markets which participants believe is sold off by the founders for philanthropic reasons," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio Ltd.

"Some of the founders of Infosys, including Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and Dinesh K and some of their family members as well as wife of co-founder S D Shibulal have announced that they have sold 32.6 million shares of Infosys for approximately Rs 6,484 crore," a statement issued by Deutsche Equities India said.

The sale was executed by Deutsche Equities India at an average price of Rs 1,988.87. This constitutes about 2.8 percent of shares outstanding, it added.

The sale has been done to partially monetise their stake, after more than three decades of setting up the company. Some portion of the proceeds will also be used by the founders towards philanthropic activities.

Murthy and family sold 12 million shares (23.3 percent of their holding), Nilekani and family 12 million shares (31.3 percent of their holding), Dinesh and family 6.2 million shares (21.5 percent of their holding) and Kumari Shibulal 2.4 million shares (9.6 percent of their holding).

Meanwhile, weakness was also seen in other IT stocks as TCS lost 2.51 percent, Wipro fell by 1.62 percent and HCL Tech was down by 2.06 percent on the BSE.